Chapter 35 - The avar autocracy!

In fact, Stephen and his people selectively choose to forget about the first 50 years as this was a dark time in their travel with no hope and a high chance of death any living organism would go crazy and so did the crews as crime and death were skyrocketing in many ships it took Stephens father a long time to get full control and he only did in the last 20 years as hope and a chance of survival made a lot of people see a future so they focused on it this is the reason Stephen and his people only say 20 years instead of 70 but now to get on the admiral's good side Stephen said everything as it was highly likely for the admiral to get the ships logs and know everything so its best to be truthful, Adam can, of course, see his self-talk and nods as this guy was enjoyable to talk too but then he thought of some 'wait wouldn't the removal of the protection result in a sharp spike of energy for a second?' as Adam thought of this his mind raced fast as he knew the time was different in the void than in space but he didn't know how slow time was compared to space "what direction did you take to get here?" asked Adam as this was important information Stephen didn't find anything wrong with this question so he answered "we went west" as Stephen answered Adam got into his thoughts 'so to our east there is a huge void that took them 20 years to cross we might be at the edge of this galaxy' thought Alex if Alex could think of this so could the other 3 captains

As the silence was getting a little unbearable for Stephen he began to sweat a little seeing this Adam finally spoke "do you know anything about your previous galaxy?" asked Adam as he wanted to know how far away it is "all my father told me was it was a galaxy around the middle edge of the galaxy he didn't know anything more as he was an expandable little merchant" said Stephen as he subconsciously got nervous Adam didn't perceive any lies so he just left it like that but asked "did you know anything about any artifacts?" as soon as Adam asked this Stephen was shocked then said "yes in the myths of our civilization it is said that in our pre-space age, we found a cube in an ancient altar and since then our science and technology skyrocketed but non of us back at home knew if it was true" said Stephen as he thinks deeply then remembers something and said again "I remember my dad used to tell me a story of war our civilization had with a magic civilization it said that they are deeply spiritual and in the war once they take a planet they would take out a specific staff pray to their gods and then a whole planet gets converted to extreme believers including animals I always thought it was a fairy tale" said Stephen as Adam knowing more of topic of ascendancy gets a little serious as this is the first time in recorded ultima history that they have confirmation of 2 artifacts of an ascendant empire or being and a god the other 3 of course didn't know of the ascending theory but these artifacts sound very powerful "what was the name of your civilization and that spiritual civilization?" asked Adam as this was also important to his report "the avar autocracy and the dawn theocracy" said Stephen as there was no reason to hide anything "so your race name is avar?" asked Adam as this was also a key report he had to make "yes" "can you tell us more about the dawn theocracy" said Adam as he can guess what kind of civilization the avar autocracy "it was a state ruled by a church believing that once all life believes in their God a dawn that brings all of them to their god's domain where they can live forever, although this sounds extremely stupid to outsiders and we even believe they are brainwashed but we don't know if they are or aren't" said Stephen a little disgusted at this kind of organization that believes in a noble cause while forcibly changing the thinking of others 'truly a bunch of hypocrites' thought Stephen as the other 4 nodded 'luckily we have our pride' thought Adam as the thought of forcibly changing someone's mind brings him back to the assimilation and makes him shudder

As everyone calmed down Adam couldn't help but ask "so what do you think about us?" he didn't ask this because of seeking information he was truly curious how another sapient being viewed them as they never had their input Stephen hearing Adam was first stunned but then started thinking all he saw throughout his interactions with the ultimas as Stephen was thinking the crew perked up their ears to hear what he was going to say as a race with supernatural pride it was, of course, valid to want to hear praises and awe from others as Stephen got his thoughts together he said "if I had to say it what I think I would say the ultimate species as everything I saw and heard in this short time I believe I haven't even gotten to see 1% of your abilities I also think you guys have big pride but I don't know to what extent" said Stephen as the crew was satisfied with big smiles and got back to work Adam with his poker face thought 'luckily we do not seek praises or awe it's just extremely pleasant to hear it's the same for any sentient creature' thought Adam as he said "so what makes you think we have big pride?" asked Adam curios at Stephens observation skills "uh well when you asked how I think about your race everyone perked their ears to listen to my answer and we're satisfied when they heard it" said Stephen while scratching the back of his head with an awkward face Adam with his poker face nodded but deep down he was a little impressed with Stephen as it's not simple to pick up the body language of ultimas while being under the stress of a meeting to decide your fate